Okay, all you panicking readers, I finally have news from Alecia!

Don’t worry about her — she is alive, and well … physically unharmed. Alecia is now at the mad scientist’s lab, hoping to find a way to save her poor little baby brother Typhon from certain death!

Let’s see what her diary has to say.

Wednesday, the seventeenth of July, Year 2013 A.D.

Oh, to think that perhaps I shall never see Typhon again! Now even the rough plane trip I had (for which he was responsible) seems forgivable!

In what turned out to be a futile attempt at locating and saving my younger brother, I contacted Dr. Al Gene, who I met at the Adventurers’ Reunion. I remembered that he and Typhon had been pals, that he was rich (however rude it may be to say it!), and that he was empowered with incredible technology. With this in mind, I sought him out.

When finally he responded to one of the many frantic e-mails I sent him, he sent me directions to what seemed to be some kind of lab. Inside, Dr. Gene was desperately trying to — well, I’m not quite sure what he was trying to do. Of course I demanded an explanation.

The one I got was nothing short of wildly unexpected. It started with him saying he had a computer brain. Or was it a computer in his brain? I really didn’t get it.

Next he showed me to what looked like a broken display with a ruined crane beside it, letting me know — calmly enough, I might add — that it was a voodoo Aether (that somehow used technology?).

Naturally, I freaked out.

“So you’re telling me that whatever happens to… this,” I pointed to the destruction, “happens to the Aether?”

“Well,” he fidgeted a bit, “yes, but I’m sure we ca–”

I interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. “So, how exactly does this voodoo Aether being CRACKED IN HALF AFFECT US?!”

He didn’t answer for a moment. The subject was clearly difficult for him. “I don’t know how to say this, Alecia, but the Aether has been split in half as well.”

He went on to explain the circumstances of its breaking, from which I gathered two things:

1. He was solely to blame for The Rift
2. He had no idea how to fix it

Realizing this, I basically unleashed all my pent-up frustration at him, telling him to get out of here before he caused even more trouble. He fled the lab; I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him then.

Now I’m sitting here in some deserted lab, with a broken voodoo world and some totally disgusting cobwebs for company, as I try to clean up the mess Dr. Gene created.

So far, I’ve tried to contact The Computer Programmer, duct tape the voodoo machine back together, and make myself a protein shake. As of yet, nothing has worked. I sure hope I come up with some cell phone reception, bright ideas, and better recipes very soon, or Typhon is doomed!

When you think about just how terrible this whole Rift crisis is, that was actually a pretty positive diary entry! If you come up with some bright ideas or better recipes, you probably ought to post them in the comments. Either that, or you should call the Computer Programmer yourself to help un-doom-ify Dr. Garlic.